Jakhiya / Spider Flower
Cleome gynandra
- Habit
- Herb
- Found in India
- Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Karnataka & more
- Flowering
- May-April
How to identify Jakhiya
Identify Jakhiya by combining habit, leaf characters, flower or fruit details, location, and its family pattern. Do not rely on one feature alone.
- Look for a herb habit.
- Check the distinctive field mark: Common weedy vegetable, elongated seed pods.
- Confirm leaf shape: Palmately compound (five+ leaflets).
- Confirm flower colour: White.
- Confirm fruit type: Capsule.
- In season, compare flowering and fruiting time: May-April.
- In India, compare location records such as Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Karnataka, Maharashtra and nearby regions.
Plant Details
- Scientific name
- Cleome gynandra
- Genus
- Cleome
- Family
- Capparaceae
- Habit
- Herb
- Habitat
- Weed of waste places and cultivated fields
- Habitat type
- Cultivated, Wasteland
- Distribution
- India, Sri Lanka, Southeast Asia, New world tropics
- Found in India
- Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Haryana, Jammu & Kashmir, Kerala, Meghalaya, Uttarakhand, West Bengal
- Flowering & fruiting
- May-April
- Conservation status
- Not Evaluated (NE)
Leaf characters
- Leaf shape
- Palmately compound (five+ leaflets)recorded
Typical of the family
- Arrangement
- Alternate
Characters marked “recorded” are for Jakhiya itself; the rest are typical of the Capparaceae family.
Flower & fruit characters
- Flower colour
- Whiterecorded
- Fruit type
- CapsulerecordedA dry fruit from a fused ovary that splits open at maturity to release seeds.“The fruit is a dehiscent silique, a slender and spindle-shaped capsule, and measures 12 cm in length and 8–10 mm in width.” — Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0
Typical of the family
- Flower symmetry
- Actinomorphic (radially symmetrical)
- Inflorescence
- Raceme
- Fruit
- Capsule
Characters marked “recorded” are for Jakhiya itself; the rest are typical of the Capparaceae family — flowering plants only.
Local Names
- Hindi
- Jakhiya, Safed Hulhul, Parhar
- Tamil
- Taivelai, Nalvelai, Velai
- Telugu
- Vaminta, Thella Vamita, Thivezhai
- Kannada
- ಕಿಲೋಣಿ Kiloni, Kirikaala, ಮಾಂಬಳ್ಳಿ Maamballi gida
- Marathi
- पांढरी तिलवन Pandhari Tilvan, Kanphodi, Mabli
About Jakhiya
Spider Flower (Cleome gynandra) is a herb in the Capparaceae family. In India it has been recorded in Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Karnataka and 14 other states. It grows in weed of waste places and cultivated fields. Flowering and fruiting run from May to April.
Uses
Locally it is grown for parts that are eaten, long used in traditional medicine and used to deter insects. Those medicinal uses are traditional attributions, not medical advice.
Capparaceae
Caper Family
Jakhiya belongs to the Capparaceae family.
The illustration represents the family — not necessarily this exact species.
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Common plant problems
If you are starting from symptoms instead of a diagnosis, use the plant disease symptom checker to narrow the cause before treating.
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